Exercises on page 239/240/241

"Ode on a Grecian Urn"

Exercise 1: Who is the poet addressing?

The poet is addressing to the Urn, the "bride of quietness" and the "foster-child of silence".

Exercise 2: Analyze Stanza 1

• a) three different way which one the speaker addresses the Urn: "bride of quietness", "foster-child of silence", "Sylvan historian"

Words which are synonyms in the first two you have found and say how the second and third are related: the synonyms are quietness and silence. History is in opposition with silence: in my opinion because the first one is not something silent, quiet, but something noisy, loud. The first thing related to history that comes into my mind is wars and revolutions, of course facts not really silent! Moreover the Urn is able to tell a story by its representations, therefore it speaks and it is not silent.

 b) Contradiction between the words "quietness" and "silence" on the one hand, and       "historian" on the other: "quietness" refers to a situation of tranquillity: the Urn is shrouded in silence. The atmosphere is calm. The Urn is situated in a place where there is no confusion. The word "silence" of the second line refers to an interior state of mind, I suppose.

c) Words connected with the adjective "sylvan". Their use: flowery, leaf-fringed.

They are used to explain how the Urn can tell a story.

d) What do we learn from the second part of the first stanza? In the second part of the first stanza the poet describes the scenes that he had saw on the Urn. He tells there are some menà are they immortal? And some girls that are escaping from men à "maidens loth ".

In addiction to this we realize that in the scene are represented some musical instruments, and therefore some musicians.

Exercise 3: analyze Stanza 2

• a) Paradox of lines 11-14: in these lines the poet says that the unheard melodies are sweeter than the heard one. Keats wants to say that the imagination let people think at more beautiful and pleasant things than the real ones. What we have is never better than what we want and imagine. Our desires are different from the reality; otherwise they would not be desires.
• b) The scenes depicted on the urn are described in this stanza:
• 1- What are they about? They are about a man who is under a three and is singing, and a couple that is on the point of kissing.
• 2- Why they cannot change? Because they are impressed on the Urn and they cannot modifying themselves. The sculptor has impressed a moment that will remain the same forever. The lovers would never kiss themselves and the man under the three would never stop singing.
• 3- What are the consequences of their being unchanging? Are they altogether positive? The consequences are that the man will never be tired to sing, a thing that he likes, and the two lovers would never kiss themselves. The last one is not only a positive consequence because they cannot prove their love to the other, and, moreover, they could not feel the beautiful emotions and feelings of a kiss, but they will remain forever with the wish, the desire to kiss, love will never end.

Exercise 4: Analyze Stanza 3

Focus on the word "happy" and "ever/never"

• 1- What do these words refer to? How often are they repeated? They refer to the subjects of the Urn: they will be forever how they are. They will be happy, because they cannot change. In reality this cannot happen: nothing lasts forever, happiness has an end. The words are repeated many many times, to underline the opposition between a representation of the reality, and the reality.
• 2- List the main reasons the poet gives for each case of happiness. Happy boughs, happy melodists, more happy love.
• 3- Do they have positive or negative connotations? In my opinion they have both connotations: oh happy lovers, happy melodists and happy boughs, you will live forever without knowing the truth, the reality, how the things go. On the other hand, happy things, because they would never be sad, disappointed or deluded by reality.

Exercise 5: Analyze Stanza 4

• a) What scene is described here? What linguistic device does the poet use to describe it? In this stanza Keats describes a scene of a sacrifice: some people are carrying a heifer to an altar. Then follows an image of a desolate town, without habitants, streets are deserted and the poet asks where people are. The poet is able to keep readers interested in finding what he is describing, by the use of dialogue, but overall, climax and a description more and more detailed, that starts from the most external part and comes into the interior part of the scene.
• b) What is the dominant atmosphere? Give reason. Enigmaticà the reader cannot realize what is really happening, why there is a sacrifice and the city is desert.

Melancholyà the lines suggest the city would no return crowed and habited,